For nouns referring to non-living
things, plants and most animals, the assignment of gender is random.
There is seldom an established link between the gender and the
meaning of words. The gender in this grouping is said to be
grammatical (masculine or feminine). Grammatical gender is attributed
regardless of biological gender or sex.

Gender Agreement |L’accord du genre

Gender has a fundamental role to play
in French grammar, as many parts of speech have different forms based
on gender. Adjectives, determiners/articles, nouns, pronouns, and
verbs must agree in gender (masculine or feminine).

For example
| Par exemple:

adjectives:

Pierre-Oh
est aussi grand
que
Pierrette. |

Pierre-Oh
is as tall
as Pierrette.

Pierrette
est aussi grande
que Pierre-Oh. |

Pierrette
is as tall
as Pierre-Oh.

pronouns:

Il
(Pierre-Oh[m.])
aime la natation.|

He
(Pierre-Oh)
likes swimming.

Elle
(Pierrette[f.])aime le hockey.
|

She
(Pierrette)
likes hockey.

verbs:

Pierre-Oh
est
allé
(m.)
au cinéma avec
ses amis. |

Pierre-Ohwent to the movies
with his friends.

Pierrette
est
allée
(f.)
au cinéma avec ses cousines. |

Pierrettewent
to the movies with her
cousins.

Learning Word Gender |
L’apprentissage du genre des mots

The most effective way to learn the
gender of a noun is to learn the gender as part of the word. When
learning new vocabulary or terms, it is helpful to specifically
memorize the correct articlesor
determiners that precede the words. Articlesand determiners agree
in gender with the nouns/words that they modify and reveal their
gender.

For example | Par exemple:

When nouns are preceded by the article
le or un,or the determiners mon, son or
ce they are masculine words.

Le
livre et le
cahier sont rangés dans le
sac à dos.|The book and the
notebook are in the
backpack.